By Catherine Cuellar, ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº 90.1 Reporter
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-595323.mp3
Dallas, TX –
Host: Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill finished third in the mayoral race, which will be decided next week. Representation of his District 5 will be decided in a runoff between two community leaders well-known in South Oak Cliff. ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº's Catherine Cuellar talked with candidates Betty Culbreath and Vonciel Jones-Hill about the future of District 5 and their ideas for working with leaders city-wide.
Catherine Cuellar, ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº Reporter: Jean Milligan has lived in Wynnewood Hills near the Oak Cliff Country Club almost 30 years. A former DISD talented and gifted teacher, she attends town hall meetings, writes letters to the police chief and mayor, and has signed up to speak before the city council. She wants to protect the neighborhood she loves.
Jean Milligan, District 5 resident: 168 We are middle class ordinary citizens. We like clean streets. We like things done well. We want our streets taken care of. I think the city is very positive and feel as though a lot of people in this neighborhood are like me. We get pretty much the best of everything and I would just like it to continue because I would like to live here.
Cuellar: She says her current council representative, Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill, has delivered for her district. She wants her next representative to do the same.
Milligan: Don made sure we had a clean neighborhood. He made sure we had paved alleys that cars and trucks can travel up and down, no problem. I think he has been a representative of trying to maintain the neighborhood.
Cuellar: In her race against attorney Vonciel Jones-Hill, Betty Culbreath touts her experience with the Dallas Housing Authority and Dallas County Health and Human Services Department. Culbreath says a marketing campaign for District 5 is one of her top priorities.
Betty Culbreath, District 5 candidate: One of the biggest problems with getting businesses to come to the southern sector is image, other than infrastructure, and to me that will help the economic development part. If we change the image, people will come.
Cuellar: But Culbreath's former boss, county commissioner John Wiley Price, endorsed her opponent, Vonciel Jones-Hill. Culbreath dismissed the slight.
Culbreath: Knowing him very well, it did not surprise me at all. John's a strange person. I'm not offended by it, but in his heart, he knows who the best candidate is.
Cuellar: Culbreath also has new ideas to reduce crime.
Culbreath: We have 20 some different police departments in the city of Dallas. Those need to be utilized as more than just as those with specific areas. DART police should be able to police anywhere, not just on DART property. Police is police.
Cuellar: Meanwhile Vonciel Jones-Hill is a former municipal judge and ordained Methodist minister who sees the southern sector as key to the city's future success.
Jones-Hill: We have opportunities with the Trinity Project. We have opportunities with the inland port. We have opportunities with the planning for water use. We have opportunity to turn around the crime situation. We have opportunity to impact educational institutions. Residential stability. And especially economic development. It's a tremendous time to be at the forefront of leadership in the southern sector of the city and I have the ability to articulate the needs of the district and move for consensus with other leaders to move forward together with people to make a difference in the southern sector and the city at large.
Cuellar: District 5 resident Jean Milligan says that whoever wins will have to compromise to maintain the quality of life she and her neighbors prize.
Milligan: I'm interested in having a representative who is articulate, intelligent, and able to work with the whole council to achieve.
Cuellar: Don Hill's seat is just one of four southern council districts to be determined in the Dallas runoff. Early voting continues through Tuesday. Election Day is Saturday, June 16th.
For ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº 90.1, I'm Catherine Cuellar.
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